A new force of armed European guards is to be dispatched to Greece to patrol the country's border with
Turkey in an attempt to stem steeply
increasing illegal immigration into Europe.

The deployment of the
Rapid Intervention Border Teams, assembled from the border guard forces
of other European countries, will be the first time Brussels has
deployed multinational armed units on the EU's external land border.

The
teams are to arrive in Greece within days, the European commission
announced today , although the precise numbers and makeup are yet to be
decided.

A commission official said: "This is a new front. The
teams are armed, but they can only use their arms in self-defence."

Struggling
to cope with the hundreds of migrants who are entering Greece every day
through an inhospitable, unmonitored stretch of the country's border
with Turkey near the town of Edirne, Athens appealed to Brussels for
help at the weekend.

"The flows of people crossing the border
irregularly have reached alarming proportions," said Cecilia Malmström,
commissioner for home affairs. "Greece is manifestly not able to face
this situation alone."
Some eight out of 10 migrants entering
Europe this year have arrived in Greece via Turkey, according to
Brussels. Some are illegal economic migrants, at the mercy of gangs of
human traffickers; many are Iraqi and Afghan asylum seekers, whose
treatment by the Greek authorities the United Nations and the EU regard
as indefensible.

"It is an appalling situation," said the
official. "The Greeks currently can't handle it. It's a small country
facing huge pressure."

The numbers entering Greece this year have
almost quadrupled, to around 34,000 from around 9,000 last year.

For
Afghans such as 15-year-old Ahmad Fahim and Fahimullah, 16, the route
into Europe via Greece is a common one.

The boys, both from the
eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, travelled by bus to the Afghan-Iranian
border, then walked across Iran guided by traffickers, who led them
into Turkey. From there, they they made their way to the coast opposite
the Greek island of Mytilene.

"It took four months and cost $1,500
[£953] for the smugglers," said Ahmad. "Our feet really ached. BUt all
the time I thought of England, where my relatives live. The conditions
in Greece are terrible. At the police station, we were kept, 20 of us,
in a filthy cell. And before they let us go, they beat Fahimullah
because he said he wasn't feeling well."

Jooma Jafari, 27, another
Afghan who made his way into Greece, in the hope of reaching Italy,
said: "I want a better life, and Greece is the easiest way to get into
Europe. This is the third time I will try to get to England. It is
dangerous, and in Greece they treat you as if you are not human."

Matthew,
aged 22, from Congo, said: "My father taught me to pray. When I made
the journey here, I prayed a lot and thanked my father many times. The
Greek coastguard destroyed our boat when we tried to cross and
deliberately pushed us back to Turkey. There was a storm and none of us
could swim. We nearly died."
According to the UN, nine out of 10
illegal migrant arrests in Europe this year have taken place in Greece.
Manfred
Nowak, the UN's human rights rapporteur, recently visited Athens and
found asylum seekers jailed in "inhuman and degrading" conditions.

"Some
of the facilities are so overcrowded, dark and filthy that it was very
difficult for us to be there with the detainees. We had to go out
because we didn't have enough air to breathe," he said last week.
Brussels
is also investigating alleged Greek breaches of European asylum law.

Over
the past year, Brussels and EU governments have moved to close down the
Mediterranean migration and trafficking routes into Spain, Italy, and
Malta through sea patrols. They have also, controversially, struck deals
with Colonel Muammar Gaddafi of Libya to take the migrants back. Libya
had been a main transit route for people coming from Africa and the Middle East.

The closure of
these routes has left Greece exposed, with thousands reaching there via
Turkey from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Africa.

The Greek
police minister, Christos Papoutsis, said at the weekend: "A mass influx
is noted daily on the Greek land border with Turkey by third-country
nationals attempting to illegally enter the country with the aim of
accessing other EU countries."

Some 25 Iranian asylum seekers are
said to be on hunger strike in Greece, some with their mouths sewn, in
protest at their treatment and the Greek refusal to consider asylum
requests.

A stretch of over seven miles of the EU's outer border
near the Greek town of Orestiada is said to be completely open and
unguarded. Migrants are entering at a rate of several hundred a day,
although the terrain is difficult.

The crisis is being worsened by
other EU countries sending arrested illegal migrants back to Greece
under rules stipulating that they may be returned to the country of EU
entry.

EU governments are also seeking to negotiate a return pact
with Turkey, and Ankara is seeking to leverage the deal into concessions
on EU visas for Turks.